Shadow Slave

After the initial shock of their meeting subsided, Sunny and Effie slowly headed deeper inland. Sunny was retracing his steps, while Effie had never been this far into the misty forest before - most of her time on Wind Flower had been spent hiding from a ferocious Nightmare Creature that dwelled on the shore.

She had ventured out in search of Jet eventually, but found Sunny instead.

He was still reeling from the fact that the vivacious huntress was with child... and that the father was a Sleeper who had once been under his command. That was a lot to digest and come to terms with.

It also changed a lot...

'No wonder Jet said that she was the only one who killed plenty of enemies.'

Effie still possessed her strength and resilience, and Sunny was still benefiting from being augmented by her Ascended Ability... but the huntress was in no state to fight. Her condition not only made her slower and less agile, but was also too delicate for the kind of physical strain a battle entailed.

What battle? She couldn't even ride Nightmare, so they had to walk at a painfully slow pace.

'That's a problem.'

Now that Effie was with him, Sunny could not cross the chasm in the same manner he had done it the first time... which meant that they would have to go around it. Added to their already lacking speed, the chance of making it to the other side of the island before the revolution ended was low.

He could not run from the Nightmare Creatures inhabiting the forest, either - it had been possible when Sunny was free to use Shadow Step, but the only person who could accompany him into the embrace of shadows was Nephis. With Effie, he had to stay grounded in his tangible form.

Suddenly, the misty expanse of the hellish island seemed infinitely vaster and more dreadful than before.

However, Sunny kept these thoughts to himself.

"...so, we spent a nice, relaxing month drifting downstream on the corpse of a Great Monster while it was being slowly devoured by a swarm of horrid abominations. Sounds ghastly, I know, but it was actually sort of peaceful. Well... anyway, in the end, I had to turn into a colossal sea serpent and kill another, even more colossal sea serpent. He turned out to be the former king of Twilight..."

Effie stared at him silently.

"...but that Dusk, whom I had killed before, turned out to be... Cassie! That's right, she has been living the sweet life in a beautiful palace all that time. Talk about being lucky, huh? So, we repaired the ship in Fallen Grace and sailed to kill a different sybil. That one, I had not killed before. She was a Corrupted Tyrant, too, but Cassie went and finished her off in one strike. What the hell, I felt so embarrassed... it would have probably taken me at least one-and-a-half strikes, you know?"

The huntress took a deep breath.

"...so, congratulations! Now you know that you have an evil twin from the future. And your Transformation Ability is to become really tall. As if you aren't tall enough already! Right, Jet's evil twin is also here, and she's even less pleasant. If it wasn't for the time loop, I would have been dead because of her."

Sunny paused for a few moments, then nodded.

"Yeah. I think that covers right about everything."

at Effie, he noticed that her

He raised an eyebrow.

time loop well

huntress slowly shook

get it. But, Sunny... do

eyes were suddenly flashed

for more than a

'Huh?'

was his turn to have a blank

of Sunny's mouth

I said, and that's your only

shook her head

think it feels great?! Nine months is already bad enough, but it has

with an aggrieved expression and pierced

Sunny blinked.

not my fault! Plus, it has only technically been that long. From

mouth, then

"That's even worse!"

she stopped, leaned on her spear, and let

"...I'm hungry."

was stunned.

'Women!'

glinted when she saw fruit, bread, and cheese. Grabbing a handful of grapes, she sent them

Oh, gods! This is it! You can't imagine... how sick I was of seaweed and fish meat... well, abomination

It seemed that Effie's already impossible hunger had become twice as dire, now... even

escaping the abominations was not an option anymore, so they

Endless Spring and

Eventually, he said:

that - unable to fight... or even protect

him for a few moments, then shrugged with

easy. But Jet took

lingered for

did you

Effie raised an eyebrow.

"Did what?"

voice was